120V AC outlet won't charge laptop

[NyackRob79]

Well, there I was, counting on my $83k truck to be able to charge my MacBook Pro. Second row has a 120 volt AC outlet good for 150w. My laptop charger only draws 87w. Sadly, this looks like another inflated "feature" used to market a vehicle without actually being of any use. For whatever reason, the green LED on the outlet starts blinking, and my laptop charger just won't charge. Should be as simple as plug-and-play. Go figure. A brief search online reveals similar issues with F-150 owners. Some recommend testing the truck's 120v port with ohm meters, etc. I honestly don't see why a simple 150 watt AC outlet can't provide simple AC power. No fuss, no muss.


Just bummed out. Thanks for reading.

 

[Artie]

Well, there I was, counting on my $83k truck to be able to charge my MacBook Pro. Second row has a 120 volt AC outlet good for 150w. My laptop charger only draws 87w. Sadly, this looks like another inflated "feature" used to market a vehicle without actually being of any use. For whatever reason, the green LED on the outlet starts blinking, and my laptop charger just won't charge. Should be as simple as plug-and-play. Go figure. A brief search online reveals similar issues with F-150 owners. Some recommend testing the truck's 120v port with ohm meters, etc. I honestly don't see why a simple 150 watt AC outlet can't provide simple AC power. No fuss, no muss.


Just bummed out. Thanks for reading.

From what I understand the F150 has a 400W inverter which is different than the 150W one we get in the expy/navi. Try some other electronics in that plug and see what results you get. I’d want mine to work as advertised so there may be a warranty claim in your future.

 

[AAOO]

It won’t power up a PS4 Pro either. I was disappointed as well.

 

[Soliyou]

Another disappointed costumer here

 

[Artie]

I’ve used mine once to inflate my friends inflatable mattress while camping and that’s it... I wish I would have looked at the wattage of that thing to see how much it requires. I think l grab some random items and just see what it can and can’t do.

 

[Plati]

It could be busted? Isnt it still under warranty?

I think those inverters dont put out a nice sine wave like your house ac does. They might output a square wave thats not sufficient for the apple charger. Not sure.

Kind of ironic. Car battery DC power converted to AC power to power a charger that outputs DC power to charge the battery.

 

[Bow512]

Ours charges our MacBook Pro Just fine. We use it all the time. We used it to power our Roku 4 and Nintendo Switch on a trip a few weeks ago without issue as well. Might want to have it checked out.

 

[Soliyou]

Ours charges our MacBook Pro Just fine. We use it all the time. We used it to power our Roku 4 and Nintendo Switch on a trip a few weeks ago without issue as well. Might want to have it checked out.

Is yours the 15 or 13 inch model?? I guess the 15 uses a more demanding charger!

 

[NyackRob79]

Ours charges our MacBook Pro Just fine. We use it all the time. We used it to power our Roku 4 and Nintendo Switch on a trip a few weeks ago without issue as well. Might want to have it checked out.

That’s quite interesting.

I know sensitive electronics like TVs require pure sine wave AC current. I doubt this AC port puts out pure sine wave. Probably just a square sine wave, which should be fine for any power adapter that only converts the voltage back to DC (like a laptop charger).

I agree that it’s grossly inefficient to go from car battery’a DC to AC only to go back to DC again. It is what it is.

I may have it checked out at the dealership on the next visit. For now I just ended up getting a $70 cigarette-lighter socket adapter for the laptop from amazon.

Still bummed.

 

[mossback]

The 2017 rigs are the same. Truly horrible. Should be 400W.